Wednesday, April 04, 2007

OMW has confirmed that WKSU/89.7 program director Vincent Duffy is leaving the Kent-based NPR outlet for a new job out of state.

Duffy will become news director of the University of Michigan's network of three NPR stations, based at the university in Ann Arbor.

"Michigan Radio" originates at WUOM/91.7 Ann Arbor, which serves southeast Michigan including nearby Detroit, and has outlets in Flint and Grand Rapids.

OMW hears that in addition to the radio work, Duffy will have a chance to do some TV work as well with the university's PBS operation, "Michigan Television"...of course, Duffy is also the host of WNEO/WEAO-45/49's weekly news roundtable show "NewsNight Akron".

Before taking over the programming reins at WKSU, Duffy was the station's news director for seven years

Over the years, "89.7" has taken on a number of new frequencies across Northeast Ohio - the latest being translators near Youngstown and in Ashland.

Re: "This is the story about a big market radio news guy going out of state? Who cares about a pinwheel public radio station??"

We are so, so sorry to disappoint you.

But we'd like to repeat the line we had earlier:

"OMW hears a local radio news veteran is leaving Northeast Ohio for a new gig in another state."

OMW covers markets large and small, mainly in Northeast Ohio. If you don't like what we cover, go start your own blog.

BTW, WKSU is hardly a "pinwheel" station. It is a very strong competitor in the public radio world to WCPN/90.3, and its signals cover pretty from the Lake Erie Islands to the PA border, and south past New Philadelphia. Even the main Kent signal does a decent job of hitting a large chunk of greater Cleveland.

Guess you caught us in a bad mood today. Complaints about what we cover will be welcome when you start paying us.

I was the guy who said $20 Ed gets the gig..I was not saying anything bad about Ed. I'm not sure why you think I'm jealous. I happen to think he's a talented newsman and think he'd fit right into WKSU. If there was anybody from the region that would make sense, it would be him.

Public Radio gigs tend to pay substantially better then gigs in Commercial Radio--and in many cases the studios are palaces compared to what you'll find on the other side of the looking glass..

But its seemingly a trend in non commercial radio that the GMs who tend to run them are in too many instances, out and out mental cases..and when staffs leave, they leave pretty much within days or weeks of each other..

Its been noted that a degree of the eroision suffered by WHBC-AM was a direct result of public radio doing a far better job of news gathering and reporting..and the numbers back it up..

If commercial radio news had the resources that a place like KSU does, it could *do* a better job of reporting the news. Alas, corporate goons only seem to care about the bottom line more than quality of product.

Has Ed Esposito ever worked in public radio? That's very much a closed-fraternity. They rarely hire an experienced newsperson from the commercial side, but they'll hire a college kid if the University station carried NPR.